Wednesday, March 24, 2010

E-blast Question of the Week

With national health care reform being signed, ROA has been asked the question: Will TRICARE provide coverage for the "children up to age 26" as is allowed under the new law?

Currently, TRICARE is not affected by the health care reform provision to cover dependent children in health plans up to age 26. By law, TRICARE covers eligible dependent children up to the age of 21, or up to age 23 if enrolled full time at an accredited institution of higher education and reliant on the sponsor for more than 50 percent of their financial support. Coverage ends on the child's 23rd birthday or at the end of that school year, whichever comes first.

TRICARE leadership is committed to providing the best possible health care plan and is evaluating how contracts might be changed to meet the spirit of the new law. ROA will share information once it is released, but DoD health affairs remind us that it takes time to develop regulatory and policy language and implementation guidance.

9 comments:

"DoD health affairs remind us that it takes time to develop regulatory and policy language and implementation guidance."

Please remind DoD Health Affairs that it took a week to get the hasty ammendment through which ripped tricare out of the "national" health plan. I believe this hasty knee-jerk reaction will not serve the military well. Rather you should have gone throught the bill and cherry picked the "good" aspects like the dependent care through age 26 and presented an ammendment that was not exclusionary but inclusionary.

I hope DoD Health Affairs works as quickly to include our dependents to age 26 and other aspects of the national plan that do not penalize the soldier and his/her family.

I disagree with Steve any additional mandates increases the cost of the plan, even "good" mandates. Tricare already covers all pre existing conditions so a fix there is not needed. Extending coverage to all categories of reservist is the pressing need and is in concert with Reserve leadership plans. STAY AWAY FROM COORDINATION WITH OBAMACARE!!!!!Gordon T. Austin CAPT DC USN

I agree with Gordon. Veterans benefits under Tricare should avoid being connected as much as possible (in reality or perception) with the new health care bill. Additionally, I disagree with covering dependent children to age 26 under their parents insurance. IMHO a 26 year old should be taking care of themselves unless physically or mentally unable to do so.

Subject: Our TRI-CARE FOR LIFE Problems!.Hey Folks!... This is how the healthcare reform will change the Military benefit - Tricare. Representatives all year long. Now did you do it? This is true. It is on pages 77, 172, 218, and 434. You have to dig to see the charges.We (retirees) would lose the Medicare for life benefit and would have to pay. We would lose TRICARE as a total care package. We would not be allowed to keep TRICARE so when Obama stands and says if you like what you have you can keep it, he lies. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has already drafted proposed legislation that would basically reduce our TRICARE for Life benefits to a system whereby we pay deductibles and co-pays up to $6,301 the first year for you and your spouse, with future years being indexed to increase with inflation. What can we do? The article below, obtained from an Air Force Association and written by BG Bob Clements, best describes what we can do.The one item of most interest to Retired Military is in Article 189. If approved by Congress the first assault wave would hit in 2011 and would hit hard. It would initiate cost sharing to require retirees to pay the first $525 of medical cost and 50% of the next $4,725 for a first year cost of $2,888 per person. It would be indexed to increase with inflation. A reason given for this action (for PR effect) is "overuse" by Retirees. For those of you who are covered by TFL you will want to pay attention (Below) to what BG Bob Clements has surfaced about the future of TFL. In any case, on page 189 of the Congressional Budget Office report, see the note below on how to get to that spot, there is a strong recommendation to eventually eliminate the program as it is too expensive. Just another move to slight those of us who dedicated much of our adult lives to the defense of our country. Strongly recommend that you contact your elected officials and register your strong opposition to the elimination of the TFL program. Heads-up from BG Bob Clements,USAF Ret (P38 Bob).The following has been added to the Congressional Budget Office Web Site

*www.cbo.gov/ * *

* a. Budget, Options, Volume 1: Health Care *

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9925/12-18-HealthOptions.pdf For those who have never opened one of these web sites from OMB: *

* 1) double click on the above URL *

* 2) click on the binoculars *

* 3) do a search for TFL by typing in TFL in the search box and then click on search. Each TFL line is a link to the OMB sine containing the words TFL.

Now here it is folks and I will guarantee if you sit around on your behind and do nothing about it as they bring these options forward this coming year, you will lose one of the best healthcare benefits that the Medicare eligible retired military have.. Remember- TFL is an "Earned Benefit" that's been granted by a previous Congress. * Is this true?

The above statement posted by annonymous with the subject line "Our TRI-CARE FOR LIFE Problems!" is a factually eroneous statement based on an incorrect viral email initiated elsewhere, which ROA has been trying to clean up for over 18 months. For correct information, visit http://www.roa.org/site/DocServer/090804_National_Health_Plan_Tricare.pdf?docID=20061.

The Reserve Officers Association has received a number of phone calls from its membership asking about when dependents up to age 26 will be included under TRICARE healthcare. ROA has already been briefed by the TRICARE Management Activity that DoD health affairs is preparing to extend this coverage. Nicknamed TRICARE 26, It will require the publication of a interim federal rule, which will have to be approved by the Office of Management and Budget before formal action can be taken. Rep. Martin Heinrich’s bill, H.R. 4923 would provide the congressional authorization needed to support this action by the Pentagon.

Gordon: Why should people take advice from a person who smacks children in the face and tells them to shut up while operating on them, with three Dental Assistants as witnesses... then tries to blame it on the media instead of being a responsible man?